Preamp questions for new vinyl fan

"I would love to run fully balanced and have tube rectification, as I love the tube sound and staging, but it needs phono stage too. It would sweeten the SS amp and help with my digital setup
Any suggestions. I'm trying to stay around $500 or less. "

That's very unrealistic. Tube rectification is almost unheard of with anything other than vintage gear. Its not something I would worry about.

There's no guarantee that tubes will sweeten your SS amp and help with your digital setup. (Help how?) If you are having issues with those 2 pieces, fix them first. If you don't, you'll just spend more money some time in the future when you do fix them.

Balanced is not realistic given your price range. Given your setup, I don't see it making a huge difference anyway. You can get good sound with single ended gear.

I think your best shot at trying to get something that sounds OK given your budget, would be to get a good, entry level SS phono stage and mate it with a simple passive preamp/volume control. And don't use a low output cart. Use either a HOMC or a MM. I also think you should stay away from tubes for now. To do tubes right, you'll need to have a bigger budget, especially when dealing with vinyl.

"03-14-15: Lincnabby
Thanks for input, fellas.
So for $500, which preamp would offer a decent phono stage here on Agon?
Or should I just get a decent phono stage separate and run it with the Consonance Cyber 222?

Any further advice is much appreciated?
Lincoln"

In order to recommend a phono stage, you need to list your whole system. Not every phono stage works with every cartridge. Include things like cables and tweaks as well.

Dynavector P-75 would be a good choice if you can find a good used one. It should work with just about any cartridge. It doesn't have to be a V3. V1 and V2 are also very good.